Pope's First Visit to Art Pavilion at Venice Expo

This is the first time a Pope has visited an art pavilion at the Venice Expo. Francis' visit was announced this morning and is scheduled for April 28th. Leading him in the Venetian capital is an artistic program that reinforces the theme of human brotherhood, the care of migrants and attention to the prison world. The title chosen for the sixtieth Art Exhibition of the Biennale is 'Strangers Everywhere - Foreigners Everywhere', an expression borrowed from some works of the collective Claire Fontaine, born in Paris and based in Palermo, a phrase repeated in over 20 different languages by the collective that in the early 2000s fought against racism and xenophobia in Italy. The idea of Adriano Pedrosa - Brazilian curator of the Venetian exhibition - was shared by Portuguese Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, head of the Vatican's cultural department. The Holy See Pavilion at the Giudecca women's prison is dedicated to the theme of human rights and the figure of the last, tenants of marginalized worlds, where our eyes rarely arrive. It seeks to promote the construction of a culture of encounter, a central pivot of Pope Francis' Magisterium. From this desire, Vatican News explains, intertwining stories are born that often may seem alien to us, but which in reality concern everyone, because they tell the same hunger for love, the same desire for life, for affection, the same restlessness of meaning, all that art, always, seeks to reflect and represent. Pope Francis 'rehabilitates' Blaise Pascal from Jansenist heresy, he can lead contemporary Christians to happiness In collaboration with the Department of Prison Administration of the Ministry of Justice, from April 20 to November 24 in the Giudecca prison, the project titled 'With my eyes' was implemented. The artistic proposal literally takes the words of Francis when he exhorts to go out and look into the eyes of the poor, inviting visitors to pay attention to those realities that are often considered peripheral, and which are often outside the cultural debate. Covid, Cardinal Ravasi: 'So "we" has become "I", but we do not save ourselves alone' Cardinal de Mendonça has appointed Chiara Parisi and Bruno Racine as curators of the Holy See Pavilion. Among the exhibited artists Maurizio Cattelan, Bintou Dembélé, Simone Fattal, Claire Fontaine, Sonia Gomes, Corita Kent, Marco Perego & Zoe Saldana, Claire Tabouret.